My First Brew

[Joeyriles]

Good to hear you've kicked off your maiden brew!

With regards bottles: do you have a crown-capper? I invested in a good one which cost me about £15 and it gets used a lot.

Just a word to the wise: once bottled up I used to lament at how expensive it was to get labels made up online etc. Turns out a really cheap and cheerful alternative is to design something funky on Paint and print/photocopy a load (I often give a few bottles to people as gifts, this year I'm creating a celebration ale in memory of my charity event.)

Sticking them on? Use a paintbrush and a small dab of milk. Works a charm, sticks fast and when you want to reuse the bottles you just dunk them in hot water and they fall off!

I realise that you may not need *any* of this info but thought I'd share it. :-) :thumb: :

 

[Chaucer258]

I bought a Coopers kit which came with 45 x 500ml bottles so I will bottle into those in a few weeks. I'm taking the Krausen Kollar off tonight as it's been 3 days and I've resisted opening the lid at all.

It's gone from a very dark Coca-Cola colour to a sludgy brown which is pleasing me.

I don't plan on bottling until its been fermenting for 4 weeks (is this too long for an ale?) even if the FG is stable as it seems that many people suggest leaving it longer leads to a cleaner beer?

When I bottle, I had planned on soaking them bottles in VWP solution for about half hour then rinsing them thoroughly before popping a carbonation drop (again, came with the kit) in and leaving them for a further 3 weeks before trying some (whilst I start a different brew in the vacated fermenter!

I'm sure this has been shared, but I plan on using this http://www.beerlabelizer.com/ to create labels for my brew!

I'll keep you updated

 

[Chaucer258]

Further to the above, I checked the temp of the brew this morning (day 5 now) and it has dipped below 18 degrees... to panic or not to panic? I've wrapped it up etc. now so hopefully it will get back to 20 odd. Will the yeast have stopped working or just slowed down?

 

[Strongarm]

It will be fine at 18, lots of folk aim for that temperature

 

[Chaucer258]

It will be fine at 18, lots of folk aim for that temperature

Thank you for the reassurance! :thumb: